All posts tagged Jack White

Those in attendance last night at The Music Box in Hollywood caught a special performance from new Beladroit/Universal Republic artist The Secret Sisters. The performance was filmed in HD for an upcoming PBS special, T Bone Burnett presents The Secret Sisters. The story of Laura and Lydia Rogers, who hail from Muscle Shoals Alabama and whose music is heavily influenced by American folk, country and roots music, is one that has grown rapidly in the last year. Two influential fans of the duo, T Bone Burnett and Jack White, have gotten heavily involved in the project, with the latter releasing their debut single just last month on his Third Man Records label, while in addition to acting as executive producer on the upcoming full-length, Burnett will release the album via his Universal imprint Beladroit… There were a number of familiar faces out to witness the event, which also featured special guest performances from Jakob Dylan and Elvis Costello. Making our way through the lobby we remarked to producer Josh Abraham and songstress Bonnie McKee, what an eery resemblance the remodeled Music Box had to The Haunted Mansion, before heading to the balcony where we joined Prospect Park‘s Laurel Stearns and Scott Austin of Authentik Artists among others. Also on hand last night was Universal Music Publishing‘s Tom Sturgis, Warner Brother Record‘s Perry Watts-Russell and the sister’s own “Colonel” Tom Parker, manager Andrew Brightman, who has shepherded the project from humble beginnings to an impressive launch. One thing’s for sure, this duo won’t remain a secret much longer…

Who’s signing where, and what does it mean? Indie acts going to majors, major label artists aligning with indies, and both systems vying to nab the same unsigned bands… Looking back at recent months there is a veritable mixed bag. There are artists with a history of at least a few successful indie releases under their belts, like Band of Horses and Iron & Wine, who have recently made the jump to major labels, Columbia and Warner Bros. respectively, while other acts like Spoon and Arcade Fire seem to continually be content on indies… Elsewhere new act Surfer Blood appears to have already made the move to a major; just 6-months following the Kanine Records release of the band’s debut album, the group had racked up enough sales and touring numbers to garner serious interest from multiple labels… This while unsigned acts with no real sales or tour history like GroupLove and DOM, are currently being courted by both major labels and indies, seemingly so as to not miss out on what could be… What about the reverse trend? Not counting heritage acts, or the exhaustingly-debated pay-what-you-want path taken by Radiohead and NIN among others, one could point to recent examples in Interpol and Wilco as once major label artists now leaving for an indie (their own new label in the case of Wilco). But will there be more to come (or go, as it is)? Word on the street is that longtime Universal artist, Weezer, who released all seven of their previous studio albums on DGC and Geffen, are making a move to a big indie label for their next album. Hmmm… And finally where do the two now meet? A new project to watch unfold will be TheSecret Sisters, who recently finished recording their debut with producers Dave Cobb and T-Bone Burnett. A large buzz is building with the news that the first single from the duo will be released via the Jack White helmed Third Man Records, with the full-length already slated to come out on Universal Republic this fall… Stay Tuned.